it took joe biden less than 29 months to meet with 229 groups in the process of coming up with this menu of options from which president obama assembled this plan today. the speed of this effort continues to outpace its own expectations. the president said he wanted expectations by the end of this month. it's not the end of the month yet. vice president biden initially said you won't get them at the end of the month. you're going to get them early, you're going to get them on the 15th. he then turned his recommendations in early. and now, today, the 16th, legislation is due to hit congress next week, even before the time that president obama initially said he just wanted to start considering what the recommendations might be. by that time, the senate is already due to have started hearings on not just recommendations, but actual legislation that they are putting forward. the political common wisdom is that speed is of the essence. it has been one month and two days and the sense of urgency that there must be a response to that tragedy. >> in the month since 20 precious children and six b